Maureen Langan: Daughter of a Garbage Man

Comforting if occasionally stiff tale about a 1960s New Jersey upbringing

Raised in New Jersey by a bin-man dad and an Irish immigrant mum, Maureen Langan is still trying to square certain things with herself. Such as, how come most people work like animals and get nowhere, while Kim Kardashian, with 'her ass like a ski slope', gets a book deal and is rolling in cash? Langan's 1960s childhood was spent balancing out the show-off tendencies that her dad was keen to encourage, with the demure, chaste Catholic traits her mum wanted to cultivate.

She has a slideshow on hand to walk us through some family photos and early heroes (Ben Stiller's comedian parents were an inspiration, and later became fans of Langan's stand-up), and does a good job of acting out the mannerisms of her aggressive dad. Langan points out that he was also funny, streetwise and a good storyteller, making her a chip off the old block, it seems.

Her theatrical monologue is a little stiff in places, and perhaps over-performed (she mentions doing the same routines several years back), but the overall effect is like listening to a wise, entertaining broad ruminating on life, from her mother's suppressed melancholy to America's glaring hypocrisies, all from the comfort of a barstool.

Maureen Langan
In Daughter of a Garbage Man, Maureen addresses our Kardashian culture, where making a sex tape and oiling-up your ass leads to fame and fortune. Maureen’s Irish mother and sanitation worker father told her to work hard, get educated, and life would reward her. But is that true? With laugh-aloud insight…